THE DREAD PIRATE GARNESS

HAPPY NEW YEAR! For as long as it lasts

2012-01-01T14:56:00.000-06:00

Howdy all and Happy New Year.

Lets hope the Mayans and Al Gore are wrong about the end of the world and a zombie Apocalypse. I would rather look forward to some great games and painting projects instead of the planets lining up and causing Cthulhu to wake up from his nap and devour everyone. Think positive happy thoughts people! Just sayin...

Suffice to say I have been ridiculously busy the last couple of months with work and real life. So much so I have not really had time to do anything hobby related.

However, I did get a little bit of a break right after Christmas, so I started to tackle a couple of projects. I began working again my the Valkya conversion about a year or more behind on. Not to mention the Kugath model which is over 2 years behind. Expect to see some progress on those over the next couple months.

One thing about me is I am really bad about being able to keep up with commissions. With the kids and their activities, work and my lovely wife who can't drive any more, my free time is really eaten up with getting where I or someone else needs to be. its not a big deal, it just takes time.

Still, a little bit of free time and a good podcast to listen too and I'm in hobby heaven. I have almost completed one of my Dark Eldar Venoms. I'm pretty pleased with the way things are turning out with them.

The Skull head is the helmet for the gunner on my venom. I like the look of them. I'll have a finished picture here before too long. Actually, I have one already finished up, just no pictures yet...

I also have picked up a bunch of Necron kits. I don't know exactly when I am going to get to them, since I am still working on my DE, but I have always loved the toasters and I am looking forward to getting them assembled and painted.

One goal I have for this year is to make back to games day to compete again. I have a couple of entries that are in various states of completion which I think will be solid entries. One is a squad of Exorcists Veterans, another is a Goblin Shaman and then there is a really nice looking Theoden single figure. I'm hoping this year I finally get a Gold Demon. A Slayer Sword would be nice too.

I'm also hopeful to go to Reapercon. I think that would be a lot of fun to go and compete, make a few friends and be in one of the premier painting contests in the US.

I'm also planning on heading back to BOLScon / Wargames con or whatever they want to name it this year. I have a lot of fun going and playing games for 3 days non stop. Its tiring, and I am pretty wiped out and can barely speak by the time I am headed back Sunday evening, but it is a lot of fun.

Something wicked this way comes! Oh My...

2011-10-30T19:56:00.000-05:00

Howdy all.

It almost Halloween and I have been busy with many projects that are keeping me away from my painting desk, but I do have one little item I did when it came out last year and this is one bad samma jamma.

A Skaven Hellpit Abomination. Now first off let me say I think the original pose is pretty good, but they missed the mark in a bad way when they did the heads. I think they may have been inspired by the 80s version of " The Thing", but epicly failed, in my own opinion.

That being said I went about my own idea of something better, and what I came up with was one large central head that looked vaguely rat like and then a couple little heads off to the side.

Hope you enjoy and please be careful driving out there on Halloween, I won't be the only one out there with my daughters trick or treating and I like for every little kid to have a happy and safe evening out there.

True Love? True Blood/? No, its Trueborn Pt 2

2011-10-18T09:33:00.000-05:00

Howdy. Sorry I have been a little slow in the posting, but I have been crazy busy.

Anyhoo, up for review is the second of my 2 current DE Trueborn units. This unit is made up of females. Not the sultry sensuous vixens Hollywood my come up with. I think they have a touch of sadistic. I was somewhat inspired by the freak girlfriend character from the movie Doomsday. Maybe not the best movie, but it did have some interesting personalities.

The ladies have 2 of my blaster conversions using a splinter rifle and the blaster from the Reavers. its a little bit oversized, but, when compared to the undersized tip from the blast pistol, I prefer the reaver blaster.

As always, comments and thoughts are welcome!

True Love? True Blood/? No, its Trueborn

2011-09-29T10:54:00.000-05:00

HOWDY.

Its been crazy busy, but still a I have updates. Everyone loves updates. Up for review is one of my 2 Dark Eldar Trueborn units.

One of the big issues I think all Dark Eldar players have had is what to use as trueborn. Some use the bubble heads, others have used the Incubi heads and others have used different combinations of cloaks, Dark Elf corsiar heads, banners etc...

I wanted to do something a little bit different, so I went with the obvious, I used the Dark Eldar heads from the warriors and wyches box sets. Not very creative or revolutionary I know, but the sculpts are simply amazing and are among the best heads I think GW has every made.

Also, I am really not too keen on payinp upwards of $10 for a blaster bit, so what I did was re-purpose some splinter rifles with the blaster bits from my Reaver jet bikes. I also used sections of the blast pistols in the boxes. I'm actually much happier with the reaver jetbike conversion that the blast pistol. its much easier to do and looks like it fits better, but since I need 12 models with blasters just for my trueborn, and then another 6 at least for my Warriors, I wasn't going to be too picky.

Anyhoo, I broke the first 2 units into male and female units. First unit is the males.

I still need to the bases, but those are on the agenda this weekend along with finishing out 2 of my venoms. I actually have high hopes to get a fair amount of final details done this weekend and start making much better progress on my projects.

Comments and critiques are always welcome.

A Scourge on you!

2011-09-20T11:26:00.000-05:00

Howdy.

I've been busy. I know its hard to believe, but it does happen from time to time. Still, I have some progress to report. Ok not really progress, but pictures of my Dark Eldar Scourges that are almost done.

its kind of sad how much of my Dark Eldar are almost done. My goal is to have my Dark Eldar done by Christmas Holidays. Should be able to pull it off. Maybe not all of my DE, but at least 3K points.

My focus of late has been doing more competition models, so I have been doing a little shopping around for some inspirational figures that I want to paint for the love of painting. I've picked up a couple of Reaper figures and a couple of those Kingdom Death figures that seem to fly off the shelves anytime they are for sale.

I'm also starting to make some progress on the valkya model for my buddy Raymond. I know its may overdue and Raymond's a great guy for being as patient as he has been. Also is the Kugath conversion. So expect to see some progress on those 2 here shortly.

But on to the pictures. Up for review are my Scourges for Dark Edlar. I wanted to keep my desert Dune theme going, so I painted them up with a darker brown armor. Its a mix of GW Scorched brown and Dark Flesh and a tiny bit of black. It initially comes out very dark. Its almost the same as the fabric for my DE warriors. Its washed with thinned GW Asurmen Blue, the BW Devlan Mud and then a thin wash of GW Badab Black. I then apply the base color again and add GW Bubonic Brown to the mix for the highlights.

The weapons are base in GW Chaos Black and then highlighted by adding Hawk turquoise and GW Scaly Green. The color is OOP, but Vallejo makes a good alternative that I use in their Game Color Range.

The skin I wanted darker than my warriors and wyches. base coat is Dwarf Flesh and Dark Flesh, shaded with Devaln mud and Ogryn Flesh and then highlighted with Dwarf flesh and adding GW Elf Flesh to the mix until its where I want it. The flesh was kind of a pain, especially the wings since I used a bit too much water and my wet blending became a wet mess. But it worked out just fine in the end.

The Helmets are the same as my Warrior helmets. Bone, washed with Ogryn Flesh, highlighted with vallejo Desert Sand and Bone White with final highlights of GW Skull White.

One thing I did here on the helmet was to detail the individual feathers. I am really pleased with how these turned out.

Its as simple as Black and White

2011-08-31T10:01:00.000-05:00

Howdy.

So I have finally decided to begin working on my Ostland Empire Army again for Warhammer FB. I was doing fairly well on them about 2 years ago, and then life got complicated and these guys have not seen the light of day since then.

So I have a few WIPS I was last working on since the last time I saw them and a image or two of my spearmen unit so far. I really like the black and white look with the red accent. I intend to add the "red Bull" head to the shields as soon as I can narrow down the exact pattern I want.

if all goes well this weekend I will be working on some more of my Dark Eldar, my Empire and the Valkya conversion.

I'm also going to post my articles on painting Black, White and Red. They are good simple tutorials and this Empire Army is the basis for those articles.

Comments and critique are always welcome.

Back to School

2011-08-22T10:44:00.000-05:00

Howdy. Its back to school day and parents everywhere are rejoicing. Well except for homeschoolers, like us, who view it as Monday. But I digress.

Crazy busy weekend, but I did make a little progress on my venom, sadly no pictures, but those will get up later this week.

For now, unit 2 of my Dark Eldar wyches. They are painted up using the same armor recipe for the warriors.
Base: Tau Sept Ochre
Wash with thinned GW Ogryn Flesh to change the depth of the base color, more like a glaze.
Shade with I Kore Earth, which is a great Dark Red-Brown color
Highlight with a mix of Tau Sept Ocher and and P3 Moldy Ocher.
Final HIghlight using I Kore Desert Sand or Vallajo Sand.

The Body Suit is done with base coat of GW Scorched Brown and Dark Flesh
then its washed with Devlan Mud and then Badab Black
First Highlight is done with GW Dark Flesh, and I gradually add P3 Skorne Red.
Finally a very thin highlight of pure Vallejo Sand is applied to pick out the highlights.

The hair actually took quite a while. The base color is P3 Frostbite, then it is washed with GW Hawk Turquoise. After that I built up the hair color with P3 Frostbite , and then added P3 Morrow White to the mix and finally touched the the most prominent areas and tips with GW skull white.

I'm still trying to get the skin colors right, but for now they are pretty good.

These guys are still a Work on Progress, as are the the first group. I plan to expand them to 10 models each, and then add a 3rd and maybe a fourth unit for a Webway portal army.

One thing I am thinking about doing is doing some you tube videos for a few tutorials. Seems everyone is out there making videos, and a lot of what I do can be much better explained with video than in words.

I'm also going to start selling some painted items from time to time on this site. Not sure who to do that yet, but Ebay is getting a little silly with policies and fees. More on that later.

Anyhoo, your thoughts and opinions are important, so I love to hear what you guys and gals think.

A Long Weekend and some Updates!

2011-08-15T10:51:00.000-05:00

Howdy all. What a long weekend I had with very little progress on the wargaming and hobby front.
We were supposed to have a nice trip to visit family in San Antonio, but my father was sick so we scrapped that. Part of the reason for the trip was I had to go to a coaching clinic in Corpus Christie. So instead of a leisurely 2 hour drive I had a 4 hours drive each way. Sigh...The clinic was not all that great. There was a guy from Nebraska talking about his success in youth football there. I think he should spend a little more time in Texas. Its a whole 'nother critter here. At least I had a couple good podcasts to listen to on the drive. But I digress.

I did get a nice picture of the Aircraft Carrier Lexington. Its huge!

I also took some decent pictures of my Wych unit. I use different hair color to distinguish the different units and I am pretty pleased with the results.

The red does seem a little out of character for the army scheme, but I have to admit I am liking it when they are paired up with the skimmers. its doesn't show up with the warriors so much since they are primarily sand and black, where the wyches are red and sand. Still, I like the overall look and how they all are coming together.

I hope y'all like them.

I need to finish up the bases. I'm not sure if I want to go with a black color sand or sand color sand. I keep waffling back and forth. I am hopeful this week I will get it narrowed down and get these girls finished.

The Dog Days of Summer....

2011-08-02T09:12:00.000-05:00

Howdy, I don't know about you guys, but it is really hot. I mean just sit in the shade and melt hot. Fortunately, the heat has kept me inside and I have been making a little more progress on my Dune inspired Dark Eldar.

One of the things I have developed a real attachment to are venoms. I tell ya, these have got to be the best little transport in the game of 40k ever. They look great, assembled very easily and the rules for them are very well done.

I have been working on one little by little getting some of the colors worked out and adding the black halo to them. The one I have been finalizing is not completely done yet, but it is coming along rather nicely.

There is still quite a bit to do to get this done.Crewmen need to be worked on as do the weapons. The shading needs to be added to a number of areas and the transport section in the back is in dire need of shading and detailwork. But all in all I am rather pleased.

I am confident a few are wondering where I got the name of the Black Halo from, since this is a Dune inspired theme. One of the bands I like a lot is Kamelot. Its a gothic heavy metal band and they did a 2 part concept album/cd or whatever the kids call it nowadays. Download?? Anyhoo, their second album is named The Black Halo and the first song is The March of Mephisto, which if you go to see the video is just dark and sinister in the feel.

Trying to include the march of Mephisto in the theme was going to be a stretch, but the black halo, on my desert background, totally works! For me at least. That and I am a stickler for doing alternative paint schemes on everything. I think if I did Ultramarines I would paint them white or something different.

The other things I am working on are a Valkya conversion which is halfway done. I have the body set up, but I need to add the wings, spear , shield and make the slight body and armor conversions.

Also I am working on a Kugath conversion that is so long overdue its not even funny. Not in the least bit.

It took me the better part of 3 weeks to get this far on the conversions. I have a few more to add and tidy things up and then it is ready for paint. So my end of summer and fall are going to be busy getting all of these things done.

That and I am going to start painting and selling some of my less used or not used armies and figures again. Lots of things I just don't use or have not used in many years are going up for sale. I'm not sure if I will ebay them or try to sell them here. Ebay is getting kind of silly with their fees, but it is a worldwide audience so.... Anyway, stay tuned, there is a lot of things going to be happening here. WOOT!

Happy Wednesday !

2011-07-20T08:04:00.000-05:00

Howdy.

So I continue my progress on my DE. I am also adding more interesting blogs that I keep track of.

Also, the house is a wreck. The family is vacationing and I am still here trying to get the honey do's done. Hmmm, so far so good. Still I think I can have most of the mess cleaned up by Friday.

Back on topic. My DE are Dune inspired. I like the Dune books, I'm not a fanatic over them, but they are good and the movies made about them were also I thought, pretty darn good. That being said I went with a basic desert color scheme. Nothing to over the top.

Here is the basic scheme. The first picture is kind of bad. I am still experimenting with exposure and light types and I think I have it nearly figured out as most of my pictures are getting better results.

Anyhoo, overall I am liking what I have here and I am working to get all my DE done before the end of the year. its a tall order, but I think with steady progress I can have it all complete.

The basic colors are for the armor are GW Tausept Ochre. I then shade with GW Orgyn Flesh. I don't really use the wash much other than to help set the tone for the undercoat. Next is a wet blend mix of I kore's Earth color, which is a nice dark red brown color, similar to a mix of GW Scorched Brown and Dark flesh, and Tau sept Ochre. The final highlight is I Kore Meridian Sand. There is no real GW equivalent, but it would a mix of Bubonic Brown and Bleach bone and Skull white.

You could also use Vallejo Pale Sand, the problem here is that Pale sand has low saturation and does not pop very much when compared to the GW colors, or I should say as the final highlight it is less vibrant than the colors it is trying to highlight.

The Helmet is bleached bone, washed with GW Orgyn Flesh and then shaded with very thinned down I Kore Earth. Next the helmet bleached bone is mixed with P3 Moldy Ochre to get a yellowish tone, then is highlighted with skull white.

The weapons are done with Snakebite Leather shaded withe badaab Black and highlighted by adding Moldy Ochre to the Snakebite leather.

All in all it takes about 3 hours per figure. What's weird is I have not hit a burnout yet. I really enjoy painting this army, the more I do , the more I want to work on. I forgot who said it, but this really is a painters army. it is dynamic, has lots of interesting details and just plain looks cool as all get out when it is done.

Here is one of my venom WIPS

These little things are a absolute blast to play with. They zip around, shot lots of shots and just plain look really cool. I love these! As you can tell, they paint up very nicely and look good pretty much no matter what you do with them. GW has done its part to release some really ugly or lack luster models over the years, but these have got to be one of the best kits they have ever made. Good job design team!

2011-07-15T15:49:00.000-05:00

Howdy all.

Not much happening this week. Lots of things to catch up one and finish up. I have a Valkiya model I am converting over finally for a friend and a Kugath that needs finishing up.

I was listening to some music and talking to a few friends about what kind of music would be good for our armies. Since I am currently playing dark eldar, one of my favorite bands came to mind.

Five Finger Death Punch. Its hard and to the point.

I like this song soI figured I'd share.

More later as my weekend progress's.

So where have I been

2011-07-11T07:55:00.000-05:00

Howdy.

Sorry for the lack of posts, but with football season rolling into championships and me getting things in life in order I have not had a lot of free time.

I know it only takes a few minutes to post something, but... well I am not to good of late on posting.

Anyhoo, that being said, I have been working hard to get my Dark Eldar painted in time for Wargamescon in Austin. As it was, I still had to proxy 3 figures and 2 guys did'nt have heads. I will take some good pictures of my guys later for ya'll to take a look at.

For the weekend I ran my 2000 paint "Black Halo" list. It still needs a few tweaks to get it clicking everytime all the time, but what I ran was

a succubus with agonizer and haywire grenades

2 haemonculi with liquifier guns

2 units of 4 trueborn with blasters and in a venom with dual splinter cannons and night shields

2 units of 5 warriors with a blasters in a venom with dual splinter cannons and night shields

2 units of 5 warriors with a shredder in a venom with dual splinter cannons and night shields

1 unit of 8 wyches with a hekatrix with an agonizer and haywire grenades in a raider with flicker field and shock prow

1 unit of 7 bloodbrides with a syren with an agonizer and haywire grenades in a raider with flicker field and shock prow

1 unit of 5 scourges with 2 haywire blasters

3 ravagers with flicker fields.

overall I went 3 & 1 day one and missed the top bracket by 2 points, next day I went 2 and 1.

I am pleased with how everything went for the most part, but I am thinking I need something more and I will be experimenting with my army over the next few months to get it where I want it to be.

Its good to be back home though and I am glad I have a couple days of vacation to rest and recover.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I won best single in the Sci-fi category of the paintging contest. Nice to get top honors in the toughest contest category. Thanks all.

Dark Eldar

2011-04-11T11:42:00.000-05:00

So no pictures just yet, but Dark Eldar have really captured my attention. So much so I will do my best to document my progress as I work on things.

I initially had in mind to do a desert type themed army, but the more I looked at it I had a lot of trouble coming up with something I liked. I painted one up in black with red accents and I am pretty pleased with it, but one of my best buddies convinced to try the desert theme again. I have a warrior I am working on and then I will decide which f the two I like best and go with that.

Updates from the front

2011-02-24T07:49:00.000-06:00

Howdy. Its been busy since last time I posted.

So where are we. I have assembled a Rhino for my Imperial Paladins Space marines, which look a lot like Black Templars. Chapter symbol is almost the same, but has a skull in the center of the cross. Along with this I have recycled 20 marines I picked up a few years ago, cleaned them and they are waiting for priming.

I have assembled 15 Iron Hands marines. There is a bitmore work involved with these guys so they go a little slower. One of the things I want to do with them is remove all imperial aquilas ( chest eagles or wings) from them. I like them to still be bitter towards the emporers children and shun things that remind them of their most hated brothers. I know fluff or otherwise mentions nothing about this, but its my army. :)

Another thing I have done is begin to work on some Flames of War models. One of the things I hate most about FOW is the barrels of the tanks always seem to get bent, then the paint flakes off, or the barrel just falls off because the glue does ot have enough strength to hold it in place. Pinning does'nt really work well either, so I came up with a neat alternative. I replace the entire barrel with brass tubing. its much stronger, and making the barrel a little longer I can pin the bareel into the turret and get a strong solid fix for one of my buga-boos.

Iron Hands

2010-12-08T11:53:00.000-06:00

Howdy. I dug out a small squad of Iron Hands I did several years ago. This is the basic paint scheme I have in mind. I won't use to much of the bionics from GW, but I will modify most of mine to maintain the improvements they make for themselves.

I really like the gear pattern I have all over and want to continue it as this army progresses. I am at this point, hoping they will be done and ready to go by BOLScon end of summer. This may seem like a ton of time, but I have 4 children, all of who play football year round and I coach them, so I spend a fair amount of my time on a field somewhere here in Houston. Its all good, just takes away from toy soldier time is all.

I also have my dark eldar, which I am going to be working on little by little as well, and my Empire army and some FOW and Warmachine. And..And..And...

I know, its a lot, but since I don't really have any deadlines other than those I make for myself, it will all get done when it gets done. :)

Iron Hands

2010-12-06T13:56:00.000-06:00

So after much consideration I have decided to do Iron Hands. Not neccessarily as GW has them modeled, which to me looks too much like an Mad Doc did the bionics. I want something more anime-ish in style without being overly gratuitous.

I will use the IH bitz I have, but some will be greatly modified, all with the goal of making my Iron Hands look more like Iron Hands and not Ork test subjects.

SO in the next few days I hope to get a couple of test models worked on and modified. I don't expect to have any painting done, but a conceptual start is what I am going for.

Dorn or Manus, Fists or Hands??

2010-11-23T10:53:00.003-06:00

Howdy.

So I sit here debating which way to go. I am sure there are many out there who as little sense as I do when it comes to stopping the never ending build up of marines.

I love the ideas of Ferrus Manus and his approach to becoming stronger and stronger by eliminating weakness. I love the inclusion of cybernetics. He strikes me as the guy I would want to be if I was a primarch.

Conversely, Dorn to me seems like the guy I would want to follow if I had to choose a primarch. Tacticly brilliant and always doing thebest that can be done.

I think both are a like in many ways and different in many ways. Both were utterly loyal to the Emperor, and both died for his cause. Yet, Manus hated weakness and wanted it purged, whereas Dorn was constantly trying to improve. Both were driven to succeed, in some instances at great cost.

If you had to choose, which would you choose??

Who would win?

2010-11-18T11:02:00.006-06:00

So I was reading a thread and all the literary yada yada that goes with it. Here is your question.

Who would win in a 3 way fight

Voldemort, ala Harry Potter fame.
Sauron, deni god bad dude with a thing fro Rings for Lord of the Rings
or Darth Vader, who likes black and starlite walks on Star Destroyers.

Lets isolate them from all thier toys and helpers and place them in large area, maybe the size of the Reliant Stadium so there is plenty of room to move around but not enough to run away.

My thinking is this.

Voldemort has a wand that channels his power, without he is very limited in his power. True he has horcruxes to keep him alive, but his living physical form is tied to his body while his souls is torn in shreds and spread over the horcruxes.
he can be beaten, but not truly killed unless his horcruxes are destroyed. has a plethora of killy spells and magic and is able to bend minds to his will.

Sauron, we will go with the he has the ring and is not a floating eyeball. Cannot be destroyed unless the ring is destroyed as part of his soul, if you can call it that, is contained in the one ring. he has a massive mace and is 15 ft tall. Lots of strength and terror, but no real magical gimicks aside from some wicked mind affecting powers preying on the vanity and courage of those he is fighting.

Darth Vader has a glow in the dark sword and the force. His suit keeps him alive, but he is able to survive without his suit for short periods of time ( gotta read Shadows of the Empire for more cool Darth Vader mojo). Still, with the force he does not any other tools or spells, he's kind got it built in. Plus the more angry he gets, the more powerful he becomes, a lot like the hulk.

So what I see here is Volde and Sauron's greatest stregnth is affecting the mind. Sorry, Darth Vader is a Sith and not really going to be intimdated with fear or lusts for power. He has been there, done that and has the T shirt to prove it. Honestly I think the whole affecting one another's mind thing would be a wash. No one is really going to get anywhere with that.

I read where Volde could just "Acio ring" away the one ring and "Acio Lightsaber" the light saber. Sauron does'nt need the ring to beat you silly, and Darth can do a lot of beat down as well without a light saber.

What I see, honestly is Voldemort using his wand to snatch away the one ring from Sauron, maybe getting vader's lightsaber as well. Sauron beats a path to Voldemort withhis big mace in hand. Volde teleports around to keep away from Sauron ( and for the record I would run, teleport, run away some more too).

Vader uses telekinesis to lift Sauron in the air and keep him at bay.

Volde tries to cast a killy spell at Darth vader, but can't seem to get the words out of his mouth as Darth Vader force chokes the life out of him. Hmm, no air, no words, no spells.

Vader then uses the force to send Voldy's wand into Sauron's eye. It's what I would do to a 15 foot ball demigod in armor with only eye slits showing. :)

Voledmort drops dead, or at least as dead as he can.

Vader uses his Jedi pwer to crush Sauron's armor, then sends his lightsaber in to flying Ginsu mode and chop Sauron into little pieces. If he does'nt have the lightsaber, I supposse dark force electrocution would work in a pinch or just beat Sauron with his own mace.

Then we are left with Sauron in pieces, Voldemort broken and in near death, with Vader in full possession of both artifacts to destroy at his leisure.

Really, thats how I see. Vader has too many advatages with the force. Even though he does not have the ring or horcruxes to keep his life or soul separate from his physical body, he does'nt need them.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Nuff said.

Thoughts?

Dark Eldar

2010-11-12T12:10:00.000-06:00

Howdy. SO the new Dark Eldar are out and everyone seems to be in love with Wracks and other such goodies.

I think I have to be out of my mind, but I just don't really find it all that appealing. I supposse it is because there are'nt any models available yet.

What I find myself most intrigued by are the reavers and hellions. To me those just seem like 2 of the most awesome looking untis in the entire list.

So I find myself trying to build a playable list using these as my core.

Currently I am thinking about 1 unit of 12 reavers, with 4 dark lances. Not the best tank hunters in the game, but from a playing perspective, I don't have to fret over the short range to get the melta bonus and it still glance on a 4+. Not so bad given 4 shots.

The I am also looking at 3 units of 12 - 15 hellions. Looking atthe splinter pods, unless I am wrong, that is 24 to 30 poisoned shots per uit out to 18 inches. Its not the 24 inch range of the rifles, but with jump troops I can move around pretty quick, and assault if I need to. Seems pretty versatile to me.

Add in The Baron so hellions are troops and then lelith to join a raider mounted unit of blood brides and I have most bases covered.

I also want to add a unit of trueborn with 4 blasters for more AT killiness and then either a couple ravagers or a pair of the fighters. I think whenI added all the points that brought to somewhere around 1500 points or so just doing the number quickly in my head. Actual list still needs to be worked out, but I think it is different from the wrack-haemconolous lists that are popping up everywhere.

Nothing wrong with them, I like to play more uncoventional lists.

Go Power Ranger GO

2010-10-01T08:58:00.000-05:00

Howdy. I did this guy up for a Bell of Lost Souls article on painting yellow. I am rather happy with how it turned out. I am thinking of building a small Imperial Fist force based on Mk 5 Power armor.

Anyhoo, something to look at.

Red is for Chaos!

2010-09-02T10:12:00.000-05:00

Howdy.

This is a figure I entered in a contest a while back. It took Best in Show and I am very happy with how it turned out.

I know the old school chaos dwarves are either love them or hate them. I kinda like them, I think the models are very characterful and are challenging to paint. I opted to stay with the standard paint scheme and painted in pretty much as the army book describes. I just put my own touches on the figure.

Also, I have been working on some arcticles for Bell of Lost Souls. They are being well recieved I think. A bit ot fame is never a bad thing really, but I don't consider myself an expert yet. I know I can do pretty much anything I want to, but truth is I feel like there is so much more I can learn and do. Honestly I feel like I have just started to scratch the surface of things in the painting world. Which is a good thing since I am a so so player. I win more games than I lose, but not by much.

On the work bench is a Skulltaker that is near complete. I need to get it done for my buddy who has been more than patient. Part of the reason I don't take many commissions anymore is I just don't have the time to get them done in a remotely reasonable manner. Then I have a Valkiya to get done, a lord on Juggernaught and a herald of Khorne on Juggernaught.

After that I have a Kugath to finish. Plus all my BOLS articles.

I think the order I will work for the next few is Ork skin, then maybe something on blending. However, I think my blending article would be better done by video on You tube. I'll have to play around with that before I am ready to go official with it. I say a video would be best because most of the belending I do is wet blending, ie I mix the colors still wet on the model, and it is best seen as it happens, not start and finish.

Anyhoo, back to the salt mines.

A Small Divergence for a Big Gun

2010-08-06T11:08:00.000-05:00

Howdy.

Normally I would talk about my painting projects and models I am working on. However, I feel I need to stick up for one of my most favorite toys in my gaming arsenal. That is the modest Thunderfire Cannon.

As an engineer in real life, the fact that it is manned by a techmarine is already a plus. Us geeky guys need to stick together.

While most of the game guru's will tell you that it is a piece of junk and not worth its points allow me to completely disagree.

What we have for 100 pts is an artillery piece that can fire 4 templates up to 60 inches. It has 3 types of ammunition, each of which has advantages and disadvantages.

The first type is Strength 6 and has an AP of 5. Good standard marine or anything else killer.

Second type is Strength 5 with an AP of 6 but has the added benefit of negating cover saves. Good bye bugs and IG and good riddence.

The last type is a strength 4 with no AP. However, anything hit is treated as if it was indifficult terrain in the subsequent movement phase, which can be very handy at the right time in messing up your opponents plans to manuever or to cause vehicles trouble.

All in all it is a very versatile weapon and if you look at the opportunities to capitalize you fire it can be extremely devastating. I will throw out example number 1 and my most favorite. Troops disembarking or being caught in an exploding vehicle.

Infantry bunched up together is where this gun really shines. This past weekend at at GT tourney in Austin, in almost every game a rhino or similar transport was blown up. Troops stuck in a tight formation. One in particular was a unit of Grey Hunters with Ulrik in it. Now this was far from average, but in one volley I was able to wrack up 38 hits, inflicting 34 wounds. Suffice to say, a large unit was reduced to 1 model with 1 wound.

Anyhoo, I love my Thundefire Cannon and stick firmly to the mantra if 1 is good, 2 are even better.

August 4

2010-08-04T13:37:00.000-05:00

Howdy.
This past weekend I went to Wargames con in Austin. Great event and I had a good time.

I am working pretty hard to try and keep up with the blog, however life has a way of making a mess of things and I have been workin on a variety of things.

Up coming topics is my good friend Honda and I are going to do a tale of 2 wargamers. He is doing Krieg for ther Vraaks campaign and I am working up my FW World Eaters.

Also, I am working on my WHFB Empire army. I have to admit I started working on this several months ago, but thus far I have only 12 models completed with several others about halfway done.

I am also needing to finish up a couple of commission pieces for 2 good friends of mine. I will feature those here over the next month or so as I get them done.

Completed projects: My Silver Skull Space marines are complete at 2000 points. My Tomb Kings are almost complete at 2250 points.

My Winter theme WW2 germans are complete at close to 50 points. Yes 50. There is still a long way to go with them.

Up coming projects

Fall football and coaching my sons team

Kugath conversion and painting

Skull taker

Lord on Juggernaught

Herald of Khorne on Juggernaught

a couple of Hasselfree figures

a few Reaper figures.

End of April

2009-04-30T12:28:00.004-05:00

Howdy.

I am finally managing to keep up with my projects. One of them is to paint up some Leman Russ' tanks for a friend of mine. I am very far behind on this but I am almost done. he wanted something simple for his Valhallan IG army so I came up with a simple urban paint scheme that I think looks pretty good.

Anyhoo, I have a few pictures of the command tank for ya to look at. I am hopeful to get a picture of the complete 10 tank company, as well as the 2 baneblades I have been working on for him as well.

I am rather pleased with how they turned out. Simple, but with a few nice little details. For the command tank I painted a simple HQ skull on the top hatch of the turret and wrote in "valhalla" on both sides. On each tank I painted a Armored fist with the # 257, which is my friends old army unit and I used WW2 style US army tank designations on the back of each turret to identify each tank, squadron, unit and so on. Overall it looks pretty good.

Hope ya'll like it!

I have also started up again on my Silver Skulls army over on Bolter & Chainsword. Hopefully I will hear some good comments on them. I will post some pictures here shortly.

Tax Day

2009-04-15T07:43:00.004-05:00

Hmm. Taxday today. Lots of interesting things going on in the world. Pirates, presidents, terrorists and maybe some really good summer movies coming out soon.

Anyhoo, life is messy and I have been busy with life and all that goes with it, so little time for updates. But I have made a little progress on some things here and there.

All of my kids are involved in sports. I have been busy with that since the fall. My wife has still not recovered from her illness, its a weird vestibular problem so she gets vertigo real bad sometimes.

I have mostly finished a huge project in the front yard. Just got to finish up some edging and it will be done for the year.

I am hopeful to go to gamesday this year. It is not looking like it will happen, schedule issues making a nuisence of themselves, but I have my fingers crossed.

So anyhoo, the picture is a howling banshee that I entered in Gamesday la last year. It was close to placing the judges said, but for a small gap under the foot and a kind of awkward pose. Still I am quite happy with how she turned out.

I am almost done on the leman russ project, that one is way overdue to get done.

The tiger platoon is still waiting to see some time. Everytime I sit down to work on them, something comes up. I think I am just going to have to settle for little opportunites as the present themselves. No airbrush work as I rarely have time to get my set up going before I have to stop and address something else. Also, I had to change internet providers so I have to do some digging to recover my clients email. I do not know if he still wants the tigers or not, but I will give him first crack at them as they were for him, and if not I will put them up on ebay.

I will also be putting up some US Flames of War stuff I have for sale. I have had these figures for a little over 2 years and they have never even been out of the box. Time to go if you ask me.

Crimson Guard are still on the shelf. No work or progress there, although I have worked up some Silver skulls Space marines while I have been away from home for work. The lighting in hotels is horrible for any serious painting work, but it is decent enough for metallics. So I have got some of them finished. Overall I think they look pretty good.

WorldEaters are collecting dust. Sigh...

The panzer division recieved some color along with the Tigers for Wittmann. Sadly not much else. But that is better than collecting dust.

Anyhoo, this week I will be getting started on Wittmann's platoon as well as a painting project for The Miniatures page.

Its September!

2008-09-02T21:05:00.004-05:00

SO Howdy all. Anybody miss me? Well I missed me. Been a really busy busy year. I have been really involved with work and my wife became very ill in Februrary. SO needless to say I have not been doing much on the mini painting front.

That being said, I did get 2 figures painted over the last 7 months. Not exactly what I had in mind, but we take what little we can get. For my trouble I won a Bronze demon at the Los Angeles Gamesday this August. It was kind of a mixed blessing. I had so many other things to get too, however I had already bought my tickets and those for my son as well. Naturally they were the non refundable kind( always read the fine print). So with 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there I did get 2 figures done.

Anyhoo, I am beginning work on several projects that are so far behind it is not even funny.

Project 1. Wittmanns Tiger platoon for Flames of War. A client of mine had requested these and it is high time I got on them. I am very thankful he is a patient man.

Project 2. A Leman Russ tank squadron and a couple of Baneblades for a good friend of mines Warhammer 40k army. I have a free reign to do what I like with them so I think it will be interesting. Also a patient man. Good thing.

Project 3. More work on my Crimson Guard space marines. A little bit here and there to keep it interesting.

Project 4. My New WorldEaters chaos marine army. This is going to be a hoot to get done.

Project 5. My German 21 Panzerdivision for Flames of War. I bought this army earlier this year and have only managed to open the box so far.

There are other oddball figures and projects here and there, most of them for Gamesday next year and hopefully Reapercon in Dallas as well.

And now even More Shermans!

2008-02-07T12:46:00.000-06:00

So here are the Shermans to tie into the Tank Destroyers. They have early-mid war markings and are identified as the 2nd Armored Division, 67th regiment, which saw action in all theaters.

The Infantry and a Jeep!

2008-02-07T12:42:00.000-06:00

SO I have finished up the Infantry for the M18 tank destroyer unit and the jeep as well.

I am very pleased with how they turned out.

Thoughts and opinions always welcome!

M20s and a Jeep!

2008-01-30T13:24:00.000-06:00

OK so HOWDY Again. My client is happy with the M18s so YAY GO ME!

Now the M20s are up for review. I was not entirely sure how to proceed with these guys, but I came across a modeling sight that had some M20s done up and a couple of pictures of M20s from the field in France. It's amazing what a google search will turn up.

Anyhoo, I took one of the more intersting models and split up the markings on the vehicles so each one would have some character.

The jeep I kept simple so the driver and officer would stand out more. I think they turned out pretty decent and am happy with the results. I have a few jeeps of my own and I think I am going to follow the same approach for my own. I was thinking of tryin to include a standing gunner on the jeep, but with the position of the MG and the stadning figure, the models physically did not fit, unless I was going to have the gunner standing on the rear lights/bumper. Would'nt look good at all.

The jeep needs a little grass and maybe some small basing details to finish it out. I am going to do this along with the infantry tonight so stay posted as I hope to update this evening.

So feel free to comment, praise or complaint, it is all good to me.

Thanks!!

HELLCATS FINISHED!!

2008-01-29T21:56:00.000-06:00

So Howdy. OK so they are not entirely complete. I still need my client's approval before I can call them done. I do feel really good about them though. I am very pleased with the way they turned out and I think there is something special about these figures I have done up.

In any event I marked them up with some simple slogans and put unit markings on them for the 67th Armored regiment, 2nd Armored Division, " Hell on Wheels" I like this unit because they were in every theatre since the US entered the war and have a illustrious history.

Next up are the Utility vehicles and the Jeeps, then the infantry!

Hellcats! Rawwrr!

2008-01-22T09:03:00.000-06:00

Howdy. Up for review is an almost finished M18 hellcat platoon for Flames of War. These are a commission set. I apologize for the poor picture quality but one of lamps was left off when I was taking the pictures and so they came out a little yellowed.

Still all in all I am pleased with them overall, my client wanted a little rust and oil stains here and there along with a bit of dusty grit. I think I have achieved what I am looking for with that, I carefully applied some weathering techinques so the fronts of the vehicles look dusty, but not covered in mud. I think that looks sloppy and not quite a realistic. The M20s I think need something more, what I am not sure of, but they seem lacking something. Maybe a nice big star on the front end, but I am thinking something more. Ultimately it is up to my client what he wants, but he has said he will let me handle most of the details like that.

I had thought putting " The Wild Bunch" on one of the M20s would be cool, but the more I thought about it, it seems like that would be more fitting on one of the tank vehicles. I will leave it to my client if he likes it or not. he may not share my opinions of "personal touches" on armor, at least for US armor. I do not think I have ever seen a US vehicle without some kind of something on it. Sometimes it is too small to translate well on to a mini, sometimes it is just overwhelming and really guady, but still it is there...Well except maybe for a jeep or two...

I know the jeep needs a star, and will look much better when the crew is done, as will all the vehicles, but I like to look at them for a while before I put the crew in them to make sure the vehicle looks "right" before adding drives and such.

The machineguns will be done separatley. I may or maynot attach them before shipping because they have a tendency to break off in the mail. I will have to see how well they fit into the holes before attaching them.

The M18s need some last little details. Serial numbers, any slogans or "nose art' my client may want. Maybe another star on the sides of the hull. I have seen images of them on the turret and hull, turret only and hull only, so it is really quite open as best I can figure.

Thoughts? Thanks!!

Happy New Year

2008-01-08T11:15:00.000-06:00

HOWDY and Happy New Year!

So I finally got the Sherman Commission complete and am moving on to the next one. I am doing a Flames of War Hellcat Platoon. Very cool models. Will post some pictures of them in the next couple of days.

I also have some more Shermans I will post here later. I seem to get a lot of shermans now a days. Maybe with all the late war hub bub they are more popular. I don't know, but they are a neat model and I never really get tired of doing them.

I picked up the Flames of War book, the art of War. A very cool book. I picked up a few pointers in there and I would recommend to anyone who wants to get some good ideas and guidelines on what a lot of Flames of War, or WW2 gaming in general, figures and models should look like. While it is not entirely comprehensive, it is a very good resource I think.

In the meantime, I have an older figure I did early year before last for your review. He is a Hasslefree figure named " Mad Dog". I fell in love with this guy as soon as I saw him and he was a real joy to paint. Hope ya'll like him!

Third Time's the Charm!

2007-12-02T22:21:00.000-06:00

OK so Howdy. I am finished with the Sherman commission I have. My Client has made his last detail requests and I think I have it now. All that remains is to make sure all is as it should be and then box 'em up and mail them off.

It seems I have had more than a couple people ask me to do whole armies for them. While I don't mind doing whole armies, I do my best work on small units, one at a time. I tend tio get burned out doing the same thing over and over again so I try to keep it fresh and different. Keeps the creative juices flowin'.

So if you have a figure or small unit I might be able to help you, if it is something that interests me. If you have a large number of figures or whole armies, there are a large number of very good painters/ paintshops that would be a better way for you to go.

Not that I don't appreciate the request. I am flattered you guys think I am all that. However, I feel it is better if we both get what we want and come out happier for it on the otherside.

So feel free to make a query, ya never know.

On to more inportant things. I hope you guys out there like what I have done with these tanks. They were a lot of fun to do. My next commission is a US hellcat platoon and after that a dear friend of mine asked me to take my airbrush and paint his Leman Russ tanks for him. Since I will be assembling and painting 8 of my own, Its not a big deal to do a few more. I hope to get a lot of things done around the holidays and start some of my golden demon projects for the summer shows. I know it "seems" really early, but to be competitive and get that much sought after Slayer sword, it takes a huge amount of time and attention to detail, so I don't want to feel rushed. Slow and steady wins the race, or something like that.

Another catchy phrase is " I guess I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue", but that's just a silly line from one of my favorite movies. :)

Some Shermans Again!!

2007-11-25T16:58:00.000-06:00

So howdy. Things have been busy and crazy round here last few weeks. I was out of town for a while and then I was really busy with work and family and the Thanksgiving holidays.

Anyhoo, I have finished the 4 76 Shermans I was commissioned to do. I am rather pleased with how they turned out and all I need is for the commissioner to check them out and let me know if there is anything else he would like done to them.

I have several other things I will be working on over the next few weeks. I am hopeful to get several Panzers ready for Ebay sales, along with some other oddball items. I'll do my best to keep the blog up to date, I have been rather bad about keeping it up, but life is what it is and I do the best I can with what I have. I also hope to be able to go to Gamesday this year. I am not sure which one I will be able to attend, but I will be working on a number of things in preparation for them.

Hope everyone out there had a good Thanksgiving, and I also hope ya'll are looking forward to a Merry Christmas!

Some Shermans!

2007-11-04T10:47:00.000-06:00

Howdy. So anyway I am on the recovering end of a very long year of very serious illness. Needless to say I an glad to still be around and I owe it all to my Lord God looking favorably on me and the tireless devotion of my wife. Good things come sometimes when you least expect itor deserve it. That being said, I am very flattered and touched from the good wishes from my friends, family and people I don't know nor have ever met.

But enough about me, and onto more lighthearted topics. I recently accepted some work from a gentleman who liked some Sherman tanks I did a while back and asked if I would do some for him as well. I normally don't do commission work anymore, but I was wanting to paint up some more tanks anyway so it was not something that would put me out.

What I mean by put me out out is not that I don't want to paint things for people, but you get to a point where it becomes less fun and more work and you are not motiviated to paint the figures. Then there is no passion for what you are doing. Whenever this ceases to be fun for me, that means it is time to do other things. My hobby should always be something I enjoy, and if I can pick up some work along the way that looks fun or challenging, so much the better.

Hope this all makes sense. I never want my painting hobby to become a chore, and have more than several times refered people to other painters because they wanted me to do something I really was not inclined to do.

Anyhoo I have some work ing progress shots of these tanks. I was really intrigued by the regiment and its history. These tanks are from the 66th Armored regiment, the " Iron Knights". They used to camoflague their tanks and the regiment is still around today. I primed in black and gaver a base coat of GW Catachan Green mixed with black as a base coat then added another coat of pure catachan green. The Camo was a mix of Vallejo Mahogony Brown mixed with black and the a second coat of pure Mahogony Brown as the base. Camo netting/foliage is green stuff. I used a mix of browns, greens, greys and some black for the netting. Any combination of those colors should yield the same results. Just gotta pay attention to where the colors are so the browns and greens are still apparent.

Next I need to do the highlights, add the dirt and grit to the tracks and some weathering all the tanks. I still have some slogans and unit markings to add and just a little bit of "bling" to make these little beauties stand out. I am really enjoying working on these tanks. Its a nice refreshing change from plain dark green all over everything. Hopefully I will have them done in the next week or two. I have a business trip out of time for a week and I don't know that I will be able to do anything till next Saturday.

As always, C&C welcome. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Take care out there.

Don't ya just hate it when....

2007-06-05T10:44:00.000-05:00

They change all the account information and you forget it, and then you do the little search thingy and even google can't find it for you....

Sheesh.

Anyway it is good to be back. I was really sick for a long long time so not much for posting, even if I could remember my username and password.

So I have been working on a number of things. Finished a German WW2 Fallschirmjager platoon. They went up on Ebay a while back, but I do have some British Commandos and MG platoons in the works along with some Panthers and a Tiger or two.

I am also making steady progress on my Eldar army. Got a few finished Dire Avengers as you can see. I think they are alright looking, but I am not to keen on the little face details so I will probably go back and clean it up.

Hopefully, I can remain healthy and productive. I have several minis I am going to post as time allows.

New Directions

2006-11-08T21:53:00.000-06:00

Howdy. I have to admit I have been in a bit of a rut of late. Caught a nasty bought of brochitis and was laid out for 2 weeks. Add on top of that a lack of motivation to accomplish things. I was on and still am on a real high from Chicago, but lots of things have stimied my attempts to get anything going with any seriousness. Is seriousness even a word?? Oh well, ya'll know what I mean.

So as I layin down in the depths of illness misery it came to me. Diversity is the way to go. I often look at minis I like to paint with the intent sell them. But as I look at a lot f what I have, I am not sure whether or not they are marketable. Sometimes things do very well when put up for auction, and sometimes, not so well. But the thing that ocured to me is I do historical minis very well, and none of those have ever done badly, plus they are a pleasant change of technique and style from the more common Sci-fi fantasy types most tend to see.

So with that in mind, and my desire to begin playing Flames of War in earnest, I am going to be painting lots of historical minis for sale and personal use as well as the fantasy and sci fi figures I am also very fond of.

Add to that I finally have venue to try and form a painting group here in town and things have been on an upswing last couple of days.

For your viewing pleasure, I have posted my lastest 15mm project. Waffen SS in Autumn camo smocks. These guys are almost done, all I really need to do is finish up the command section and an objective and then they are ebay bound.

What I am not going to sell are my British commandos. I will post some pictures of them in the next day or two, just ya'll can see what I have. On the workbench is a unit of German Machine guns and Brit machinguns as well as my long awaited Eldar army.

I am also almost done with the Bloodthirster I am doing for a friend, almost a year to finish it, and then I have a project long overdue for the Miniatures page. Those will be worked in and completed before the end of the year if all goes well. I got a lot of catching up to do, but slowly I will get it all done.

Anyhoo, comments are always welcome, and if you have any ideas for Historical units you would like to see done, let me know, I am not too discrimantory, but the end is to try and sell most of them. Although if I like them enough I will certainly exercise my right to keep them for myself.

It's October!!

2006-10-16T21:04:00.000-05:00

HOWDY. Wow, it's been almost a year since I started this and while I have not been as attentive as I would have liked, I certainly have been busy. I am slowly getting things done. The Blood thirster commission is coming along and if it ever stops raining here in Houston I have another commission to do. For the Miniatures page I will be doing a Hordes boxed set of Trollbloods. Humidity has been killing me here. Makes my primer go all fuzzy. SO after one unit of choas warriors turned fuzzy I decided to wait it out. No one wants fuzzy trolls. Maybe an ogres or two but not a troll.

The guy I have here is an Arch confessor I painted a few years ago. I am rather fond of him, but sadly no one really notices the details on him. Oh well, sooner or later he will be appreciated by more folks other than me. This guy was my firat foray into Non Metallic Metallic. I think it came out pretty good considering it was my first attempt.

2 versions of red and gold

2006-08-31T11:05:00.000-05:00

Howdy. Over the last week or so I have been working on a number of things. One if my Vostroyaans Imperial Guard and the other is my Epic scale Space Marines, the Crimson Guard. Both are using red and gold, although in the case of the epic scale it is more of a yellow gold color thana true metallic as on the vostroyaans.

On my vostroyaans I used a base color of vallejo brass and then washed with GW brown ink. Actually a couple of washes to add depth and definition to the metallic. Once dry I painted with Vallejo Glorious gold and then washed again with GW chestnut ink and picked out the highlights with more Glorious gold and finally highlighted with Vallejo Model Gold. Overall I am pleased with the results as the golds have a rich deep color and a bit of a warm reddish hue.

The epic scale guys are based with GW Vomit brown, washed with a light wash of GW brown ink and then ther details picked out with GW Golden Yellow. They are nice and bright and should look really good on a nice green flocked base once complete.

Next thing I am working on is my Mortal Chaos army and I should have a few pictures up in a few days.

The beginings of the Hochland Highlanders

2006-08-15T09:08:00.000-05:00

Howdy. Through the weird twist of fate I have wound up with a another WHFB Empire army. With a new fantasy league forming I initially decided to do Empire for the league.I wanted something different for them so I elected to create the Hochland Highlanders. With a little bit of work I have added kilts and other Scottish type gear to them so they take on a new look but yet are still distinctly Empire.

Ultimately I discovered this is going to take a lot more work than I initially planned so I changed the army I was going to play to Mortal Nurgle, with another article on them later. But I am going to continue modeling this army, but I won't be rushed so I can do it justice and make a really cool looking army.

Me and my Silver Demon

2006-08-10T13:24:00.000-05:00

Howdy. Ok so this is not my best picture, but this a dream for me. Me with a demon of my very own. I can't tell ya'll how excited and thrilled I was at this moment. Something I had been dreaming of for close to 18 years since I first discovered GW and the Golden Demons. I can hardly explain because what I had always hoped for was the chance to go and see, and yet here I am with one of my very owm.

Things have been a little busy since I got back from Chicago, but at least they are moving along. Gotta finish the bloodthirster for my friend and I have started an Empire Army for WHFB.

I also need to get my Warmaster skaven painted up and last but not least, I need to finish up a bunch of figures for the Miniatures page. SO FAR BEHIND AND SO LITTLE TIME.

In any event, I am slowly getting caught up and getting things done. Also, school and family events are reving up again and my garage is in dire need a major cleaning.

I will post pictures of my initial highlander theme empire army soon.

Tahnks and take care

Back from gamesday

2006-08-02T08:33:00.000-05:00

Howdy. I returned from GamesDay Chicago and what a show it was. I played in the Grand tournament with an overall record of 1 win, 2 draws and 2 loses. There were some very tough lists there and some very good players as well. Lots of really nice looking armies, only problem is I am such dork I forgot my camera.

I also entered four figures in the Golden Demon, a dream of mine for many years now and I placed with a silver in the LotR category!! I also had my Court of the young king make first cut in a very difficult 40k squad category. The competition there was unbeliveable and I amreally glad to have done as well as I did.

Anyhoo, there were lots of things to do and I had a really good time and piked up some very good tips and ideas on how to approach things so I will be more competitive in the future. Now all I have to do is get cracking and make these things happen while they are still fresh in my mind.

The picture is of my court of the young king some one was kind enough to take. It still needs a lot more work, but I think I am going to take a break from it for a while and or sell it and start another one. I am not sure yet, but we shall see.

The Bug Guy!!

2006-07-26T10:54:00.000-05:00

Here is the guy have been working on for a long while now. He is completely done, but the picture is probably a little dark so I will take better pictures later. These pictures were for a friend of mine so he could review and comment. He has good insights and I am fortunate to get his help!!

Anyhoo enjoy!

2 Days and counting!!!

2006-07-25T19:35:00.000-05:00

Howdy all, I have been quietly working hard to get all my entries done in time, but as one should expect there are the inevitable delays.

I have one more figure to get painting on and it is the avatar for my Court of the Young King.

Overall, I am very happy with the way all of my entries have turned out. With each exarch I am trying to keep and elemental feel to each one without blatantly showing it is an elemental theme. I want for the viewer to look at each one and say, wow, that gives me the impression of heat or water or air or earth, depending on which figure you are viewing. That is my goal, I won't know for sure until somebody actually looks at them. Chicago will be the big debute. Yippee!!!

Tommorrow I will post my bug guy because I figure it is safe to show you guys what I have worked on for the last month and a half.

I would appreciate any comments you guys have on what you think, so feel free to fire away. Thanks!!

Working on More entries for GamesDay Chicago

2006-07-08T09:04:00.000-05:00

Howdy. I have been steadily working on my figures and conversions for Gamesday. In this I have learned a lot about conversions and sculpting. One of my figures is the most ambitious project I have ever attempted and he is complete. But you will have to wait until before Gamesday to see him. Sorry, don't need someone borrowing my idea for their own use. I'm selfish like that. But once it get closer to the actual competiton I will be ore than happy to post him for ya'll to look over.

But in the mean time I have a picture of my Howling banshee Exarch conversion. I always hated the sculpt for this figure so I borrowed some bits and body parts and improved upon it greatly in my own honest opinion. To me it seems to have a much improved dynamic to it instead of the lame big girl with a pointy stick that is in the current line.

On another note. my youngest Daughter turned 1 yr old a week ago and we are all very happy about that. Now if would just stop kicking our co-depenant anxiety ridden dog life would be perfect. Ahh, well perfect is boring, nothing unexpected ever happens.

And off to Games Day Chicago I go

2006-05-16T20:46:00.000-05:00

Howdy. Well in case anyone missed me, clearly I have been away for a long long while. Work has had me very busy and I have pretty much dropped off the face of the earth on anything not related to work, but fortunately these things don't last forever and I am happy to have a little breathing room again.

I have had a wonderful year so far though. Life is good, marriage is good, kids are good. its all good. I also finally after all these years of dreaming, I have finally gotten my ticket to a Games Workshop Gamesday. The one I will be going to is in Chicago end of July. I am really excited about this. I have a few figures already stared for the Golden Demon painting contest and I am also working on my army for the Grand Tournament.

I hope to post some more of my ideas and maybe, just maybe a few pictures of my entries shortly before the actual contest.

I don't know exactly how to go about painting and/or converting some of my figures, but I do have some in mind and if all goes well, I will have them all done in time.

In the meantime, here is a finished figure I did. I think she turned out rather well.

Been Slow going

2006-01-27T19:06:00.000-06:00

WOW, it has been a while and so little has been done. I have been busy with work and family and as a result I have not done much painting. Ok well I have been playing a lot of Final fantasy online, but I need to cut back on that. I can get right addictiative if you are not careful.

Anyhoo, I am going to be out of town for a while and as a result I will be getting very little painted. Honestly, I won't be painting anything.

BUT..... I have started a project for a friend of mine. I have been commission to assemble and paint a Forge World Bloodthirster. I have all the parts and have begun the clean up work.

My intial thoughts are that this figure is way to expensive for the quality they provide. it has huge seam lines where the molds did not line up properly. This requires some extensive work to remove the mold line and then resculpt the details. It would be one thing if the parts were smooth and could be done with a simple sanding, but the parts are very detailed and will require a lot of hours to make it presentable. I supposse I could have let them in and just painted it, but that does'nt seem right. I figure if you are going to do something, then at least do it right.

Lastly, I submitted my Roman Signifier to TMP for the Alpha painting contest. I like the figure. it may not be the latest vogue with regard to painting styles today, but I am very pleased with the results. It is a simple but effective figure that has some real depth and character to it. I pretty much decided I am going to paint him up how I wanted to and not with what I thought would win the contest, cause at this point I honestly have nothing to prove and don't care how the contest goes. Painting this figure was a delight and I consider myself lucky to have the opporunity to be a part of this contest and share how and why I did what I did on him. I hope you like him.

Boy, have I been busy

2006-01-14T13:39:00.000-06:00

So Howdy. Man, what a long holiday season it was for me. I started playing Final Fantasy Online again and have been having a blast doing it. Also, I have been trying to get a lot of paintig done and out of the way. Little progress has been done on my Brits, but I have finisged up my Russian Arty.

I also got my Alpha Paintig Contest Mini finished. I am in the final round and hopefully I can make a good showing.

Been playing around with the forum as well.Got a nifty header/banner logo or whatever it is called and I think it is rather spiffy.

I loaded my "desk top shot of the week". It is a concept got from Mr. Jacob Rune Nielson. I don't know if he knows I borrowed his idea, but I like it. I hope, or I should say it is my intent, to post a desk top shot of the week here every week. It will help me keep track of what I have been working and doing.

So I like elves

2005-12-04T21:30:00.000-06:00

Howdy all. It's been a crazy week with work and pulling a lot of long hours. That really is one of the major downsides to working a salary job. I like my work and it pays well and most of the time I have a pretty good time figuring things out. Of course there is the usualy stress when things don't go the way I would like, but it is what it is.

Anyhoo, I have done very little this last week, but what I did do is finish I think my Woodelf Noble in Traveling clothes. I am not sure she is done, I look at her a lot to see if something is missing. Usually when I do that I think it needs something more, but I am not sure what it needs. I was thinking a tree of some sort, but that would be really akward to pull off.

So here is the initial figure for you to review before much of anything has been done.

I know I haven't really done a good job of sticking to my projects, but I do get easily distracted when people wave painting contests in front of me, and we have had a few of late around here. I promise to get back to what I had planned, but for now ya'll will have to settle for my rambling method. However, I do fully admit this is why I have a lot of projects half way done and almost none finished. Oh well, at least I am happy with what I am working on. :)

Arwen from Lord of the Rings

2005-12-01T22:32:00.000-06:00

So here she is. I am rather fond of this figure and it took best overall in a local painting contest this past weekend. I was really quite pleased with the way she turned out. This Arwen figure is one of those that just screams to be painted, so when I saw it last Wednseday, I bought it and went home and got it ready for the contest. After two days of hard effort, this is what I have to show for it. I mst admit this figure, despite the amount of time I out into it, was really a joy to work on.

I feel that the latest batch of LOTR figures GW is producing is among the best they have done in a long time. Some of the early figures I felt were a bit lacking, but this is one is really something special.

What a weekend!!

2005-11-27T21:08:00.000-06:00

Howdy all. I hope everyone had a wonderful turkey day. I spent the day with my family and had a spectacular day eating, watching tv and just being around the family with nothing better to do than to watch my daughter try to crawl, play a game or two with my sons and just be a dad. Its kinda nice to take all the worries away for a day. It was time well spent.

Saturday, we went down to one of the GW stores here in town and played a game of epic. It wa lots of fun with my Tyranids trying to eat some tau. Came out in a draw, but what a fun game. In the evening I entered in a paintig contest and took first in 2 categories and best overall as well with the new LOTR Arwen figure. I was going to paint my woodelf standard, but when I saw this figure it just screamed to be painted. So I dropped the woodelf and did Arwen instead and she took best overall. I am rather proud of this as the competition was very good.

I'll post picture when I take one, right now I am still trying to recover from long hours spent on the figure and a day long game-a thon. But I will post of the Warhammer single I entered. It is an Empire Engineer.
I did him early this year and thought it would good to enter and see how it does. Turns out he won me best Warhammer single and for my trouble I won a limited Gimli on Uruk Hai. Its really a cool figure with Gimli the elf from LOTR sitting on a dead Uruk Hai with his axe stuck in its head and smoking on his pipe. Very cool.

For Thanksgiving Weekend Painting Contest

2005-11-13T22:08:00.000-06:00

Howdy. I am getting my Wood elf ready for a Thanksgiving weekend painting contest. I have started with the limited Edition Standard included in the Wood Elf Army Box. I was lucky to even get the box a while back, but one of the fellows who preordered it backed out at the last minute and I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. So now I have Wood Elf army. Actually it is a pretty nice looking army. Figures are well sculpted and overall I like the look of it. The previous models were about butt ugly and even the treeman looked lame. Course, I think the new treeman is not much better, and the treekin look like somethin' even my dog would'nt wee on, but hey, some people like 'em. I'm just not one of them.

Anyway back to my original point. I have been working on my standard and have done a decent job of taking some pictures of the Work in Progress. I will post more of the WIP pics over in the forum where you can more easily ask questions about it if you have any. But for now, here is the start up picture. It's really not much to look at, but I am going for a late summer-early fall theme. To be honest I really can't decide which is a better way to go, so I am just going to paint the figure as it tells me to paint it. It's kind of hard to explain, but sometimes you see a figure and it just says to buy it and paint it. Even though you have no idea how to it should be painted, I find that if you look at it long enough, it just kind of comes to me and so off I go with no rhyme or reason, just doing what seems to work and then when it is all said and done, more often than not I have a really nice looking figure for my shelves.
I hope to have him done this week and begin my next figure for the contest. I'll keep updating over on the forum as I think weekly updates are better done here.
Oh and one more thing, I think tommorrow my report on a 54mm Gladiatorial figure I did will be up on The Miniatures Page. It is a decent article on how I painted up a figure provided by Alpha Miniatures for the reader of TMP. I think he is pretty good. Maybe not the best of all the entries, but at least good enough to feel good about. Be sure to go check it out. My write up on a Barbarian Warlord is already there and can be found here :

http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/73597/

Lots of good articles hear for you all to read. Thanks!!

Something for the New Week

2005-11-07T11:43:00.000-06:00

With a new week should come a new picture. This is a Syntha Biomech I did for a online contest last year. I was sorely disappointed that he did'nt even place, but what can ya do??? I think he turned out rather nicely and I like him. My main purpose for doing this figure was to try to develope techniques for unusual patterns. I elected to try a snakeskin type pattern and I think it turned out pretty good for a first time try. I could certainly do one much better now, but that really is'nt the point.

I was also experimenting with doing NMM on the arms. I wanted to do a metallic look, but not the highly reflective Sky-Earth NMM that I think has become a bit of a plague on the painting hobby. I think it came out alright, but it could be better. As I think about what I could have done to improve it, I am at a bit of a loss. It does look like steel ( I work with it on a daily basis) but it lacks something artisticly to really get it across. I plan to but a few more of the Void Syntha minis to do a little bit more experimenting later in the year or next year, but for now this will have to do.

Feel free to tell me what you think and offer any comments here or on the forum. Thanks!!

2005-11-06T21:45:00.000-06:00

Howdy. This has been a busy weekend for me with lots of things happening. Saturday was the neighborhood garage sale so I helped my better half move things around for the big day. All in all it was pretty good,. We sold a lot of things we were going to throw out and it was nice to have someone else pay for our junk.

I got some of my Brits on popsicle stick ready to be primed. I also exchanged a lot of odds and ends and got my self a full FOW British rifel company. I am very excited to get these guys on the table, but I really want to do a nice job on them. There are so few figures that it should not be an issue with time spent per figure. If I am enjoying what I am doing, it can't be that much of a chore.

I also am working on my Wood Elves and Skaven for Warhammer Fantasy. I have a grand total of 1 dryad assembled and I am not sure I like one of the arms so I may remove it and get another one in its place. There is a painting contest coming up in a couple of weeks so I think I will do up my Wood Elf Standard Bearer for the contest. It is a nice looking figure and cool standards are always impressive.

Fall is for all things Brown, Green and Gold

2005-11-04T09:29:00.000-06:00

Howdy! For the Month of November I plan to start and complete my FOW british infantry army. It will consist of a couple of units of commandos, some armor and one great big unit of artillery. Currently I have 2 units of commandos, a boxed set of Biritsh rifes, a boxed set of Sherman IIIs. Today I will be going over to my local retailer, Little Wars, and pick up a couple of the Royal Artillery batterys consisting of (4 ) 25lb guns.

I hope to have a good infantry assault force supported by lots of powerful arty and armor. On my little forum I will post pictures and articles on how I did what I did until I figure out how to get a couple of pages here or else where to link to. But I think a forum is not a bad place as you can ask question there about my progress and I can respond.

I also plan to work on a couple of figures for an upcoming painting contest end of the month. Not sure what I am going to do yet, but I am leaning towards a Wood Elf noble and some kind of chaos figure for the single mini category. if I have time I want to do some dryads, but we shall see.

Pics of the figures coming later on today when I get home to post them.

Something for halloween

2005-10-31T11:15:00.000-06:00

HOWDY

2005-10-31T11:05:00.000-06:00

Well, here is my little corner of the net. I hope to soon publish my thoughts, projects and ideas here soon. Thanks!